Hong Kong's democrats accuse Blair of betrayal

By Adam Luck

Tony Blair has been accused of abandoning Hong Kong's democracy movement in the face of a controversial Chinese law which protesters say will curtail freedom and threaten human rights.

Martin Lee, the former colony's most prominent democrat, is furious that his request for a private meeting with the Prime Minister this week was turned down despite rising concern about the Article 23 anti-subversion bill.

Leading democrats believe that Mr Blair, who is due to meet President Hu Jintao of China on a whistle-stop visit with a British business delegation, is determined to avoid upsetting Beijing either by attacking the bill or by demanding full democracy in the former colony.

Mr Blair arrives in Hong Kong on Tuesday evening and is due to meet Tung Chee-hwa, its embattled chief executive, later this week. Yesterday, Mr Tung travelled to Beijing to brief China's leaders about the crisis that has engulfed Hong Kong.

Street protests and a collapse of confidence in Mr Tung's leadership forced him to backtrack on the legislation and led to the resignation of two cabinet ministers.

Mr Blair will receive a frosty reception from democrats, who believe that his government puts business before human rights. In the run-up to the 1997 handover, he vowed to defend Hong Kong's freedoms. However, Mr Lee described the language used in Foreign Office statements about the controversial bill as "supine".

Mr Lee, the founder and former chairman of the Democratic Party, Hong Kong's biggest political party, told The Telegraph: "The statement from the White House to say that the Americans opposed the bill is one which the British would never have used."

Mr Lee said he was told that Mr Blair was too busy for a "private audience". Instead all legislators and cabinet members, including those from pro-Beijing parties, have been invited to a reception with the Prime Minister on Wednesday.

Mr Lee's supporters believe that the invitation was intended to sidestep the problem of being seen to endorse the democrats, who have been accused of "subverting" Hong Kong and China - one of Britain's biggest business partners.

Mr Lee said: "I would have asked him to discuss these problems, go into details, and then come up with suggestions as to how he can help Hong Kong. But when you put all these legislators together from different parties, including pro-Beijing parties, what can you really say to him?"

The proposed law would see groups such as Falun Gong - the spiritual movement - banned, journalists denied a public-interest defence and police allowed to search property without a court warrant.